Groups of germs! And a demo just for you.

A pretty normal week - I accomplished what I set out to accomplish. I got germs spawning in groups working earlier today (goal met!), but it still needs a little work before I'm satisfied with it. Right now, germs spawn in groups of 3 every time, but changing that to other numbers should theoretically just be adding a new variable to the growing list of tweakable constants. Spawning in groups is quite cool, and I feel like it gives me as the designer a lot more control over how the game plays. Now I can theoretically do things like spawn a ton of enemies on one side of the room and a have a group of appropriate pills come from the top. Groups also make the game a little easier/slower. They're basically just as easy to dodge and collect, but are easier to process and give you higher rewards for eating them.

Above, the group coming in is circled.

I think I'm close to being feature-complete; whatever comes next should be in response to playtesting. And I should do a lot of playtesting! Biggest features still to go in: difficulty modes (easy, medium, hard), and maybe a joystick for movement? Simply moving wherever your finger is has not been working out particularly well; even with all the changes it doesn't mesh well with the fine play that is still required. Group germs are awesome though, and more fine tuning of the play experience may be able to fix the problem without changing the control scheme.

Uploading a playable version of the game this week! It's an apk file, so you can play it directly on your Android. You'll have to copy the apk from your computer to your Android, then install it on your phone using a File Manager. Download it here: https://www.box.com/s/j0nyb89mrc9mkt0gtej7

For next week: improving and making more use of the group system. Easy, medium, hard modes also need to come in soon, but none of the numbers (enemy spawn rates, enemy speeds) are really set in stone yet. Since difficulty modes will mainly just be tweaking those numbers (and something to do with groups of germs), it will be difficult to have the modes be meaningful yet. Getting the code base ready for it would certainly be a good thing though.

Finally, I have to hurry on this project and release something soon, because I'm starting work on a group project soon. Sadly this will suck away my time, but it also means I will be putting something on the App store soon (or at least something better on Steam workshop). Thanks for reading and have a good week!